Chapter # 9 Paragraph # 5 Study # 2
May 9, 2023
Moss Bluff, Louisiana
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Thesis:  Even as late as being on the verge of Jesus' crucifixion, The Twelve were all wrapped up in attempting to exalt themselves over one another.

Introduction:  Last week we considered Mark's use of "Capernaum" to serve as the "setting" for the "bottom line" of all theological debate: What is God actually like?

In our study this evening we are going to look at a closely related issue: what is God's Kingdom actually like? Is it a "meritocracy" where the best performers get the best positions of exalted glory; or is it a kingdom where Love and Grace exclusively dominate? The first part of the answer to this issue is Mark's presentation of The Twelve as arrogant, self-exalting, blind men.

• I. He Was Asking Them.
  • A. In the house...
    • 1. "House" is used by Mark to indicate "a hospitable environment". His first reference is to the house in Capernaum where Peter's mother-in-law was seriously ill and is in the first record of Jesus' capacity to instantly heal (1:29-31).
    • 2. In this text/context, Jesus waited until He and The Twelve were "in the house" (apparently they resorted to the same house when in Capernaum) to address what had been going on between The Twelve while they were "on their way" to Capernaum and He was, once again, telling them what to expect when they went to Jerusalem.
    • 3. Being "in the house" is a statement of the significant contradiction between "setting" and "reality' (hospitality vs. strong conflict).
  • B. The action of which He asked is called "dielogizesthe".
    • 1. This verb is used by Mark in 2:6; 2:8; 8:16; 8:17; 9:33; and 11:31.
      • a. In each text there is a serious conflict of concepts that make "understanding" impossible.
      • b. The implication exists in these texts that those who are "discussing" are in various stages of "irritation" with each other, though the level of that irritation varies significantly.
      • c. That the NASB uses our English word, "discussing", in both 9:33 and 9:34 when Mark shifted from "dialogizomai" to "dialegomai" is indicative of a false assumption in translation-theory: that there is no need for "translators" to use words that reveal rather than conceal. Mark had a reason for his shift in terms; students limited to English would never know that.
        • 1) The first verb, "dialogizomai", is used in six texts of Mark and its meaning tends in the direction of "blaming/deflection of blame" (Note 2:6-8 and 11:31).
        • 2) The second verb, "dialegomai", is used only once by Mark, but it is found in 10 texts in Acts where the meaning of the word is indicated to be "the presentation of a logical, rational, progression in evidence that moves toward a conclusion".
        • 3) Mark's single use, however, has strong overtones of "heated argument" as well as the "logic" behind each one involved.
        • 4) The point: Mark's first word tends in the direction of "blaming" or "shifting blame" while his second word tends in the direction of "pushing an issue". Both of these activities, in Mark's uses, are clearly the activities of "egos in conflict" (the pride of life running the course of the words).
    • 2. This first verb, in its contexts, is actually exposed as to its meaning when, in the next chapter, the actions of James and John, in attempting to preempt the others in respect to "position" in the Kingdom, seriously irritate the other ten apostles (10:35-41). This verb does not show up there, but the issues are clearly there.
    • 3. That there was "a serious conflict that precluded understanding" signals the fact that, as long as men are at each other's throats over "pride of life issues", there will be no understanding nor harmony.
  • C. But they were being silent.
    • 1. In Mark's five references to someone/thing "remaining silent", there is always a "reason" and it seems to be rooted in "conflict issues" that the "silent" have instigated (this is not, in Mark, automatically negative; Jesus remained silent before Pilate because He knew Pilate was being manipulated and His adversaries were vicious and skillful in their politics, so there was no "point" to saying anything).
    • 2. In this case, no one wanted to bring up the debated issue. It was a "pride of life" thing that sought to keep the childishness and false ambition issues from coming to light.
  • D. The "conflict" issue: "Who is the greatest of us?"
    • 1. This is such an inane issue that it deserves the "keeping of silence" about it.
    • 2. Its "inanity", however, did not keep it from surfacing among The Twelve because every one of them was deeply afflicted by the lust for status that John calls "one of the three things that exist in the world of motivation" (1 John 2:16) that dominate this wicked world.
• II. Jesus' Declaration Of Reality Regarding This Motivation.

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This is article #400.
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